Drums recorded in Tanken Studio, Oslo by Fredrik Wallumrød, January 2010.
Guitars, bass and violin recorded in K-Lab Studio, Stavanger by Anders Høyvik Hidle and Ole Vistnes, February 2010.
Vocals recorded in Amadeus Studio, Oslo by Sigmund Vegge and Waldemar Sorychta, February and March 2010.
Mixed by Waldemar Sorychta and Dennis Koehne in Flying Pigs Studio, April 2010.
Mastered by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers, May 2010.

Produced by Anders Høyvik Hidle and Ole Vistnes.
Co-produced by Waldemar Sorychta.

Tristania is for one more time in the controversial eye of the cyclone. The first time was when Morten Veland ceased to be a member of the band. The second was when the charismatic and adored by the fans of the band (and of gothic metal as well), Vibeke Stene, left. But the flames of controversy hadn't risen that much, not until recently when their 6th full-length album came to the surface, the 1st with Mariangela "Mary" Demurtas on the female vocals. Yet, this isn't the only change on the line-up, only two of the founding members remain in the ranks of Tristania, Anders Høyvik Hidle and Einar Moen, although Osten still partakes as a guest vocalist which is very welcome, he has also written half the lyrics of the album.

And some people are just total fanboys who aren't capable of distinguishing brilliant, great, decent and bad metal. You can't really judge anyone's opinion or rating if you only hand out 9's and 10's, which is utterly ridiculous since that means you only listen to brilliant music/masterpieces and that simply isn't possible. So I suggest you review your own scores and actually learn how to rate your music instead of having a 9.6+ average rating.

And some people are just total fanboys who aren't capable of distinguishing brilliant, great, decent and bad metal. You can't really judge anyone's opinion or rating if you only hand out 9's and 10's, which is utterly ridiculous since that means you only listen to brilliant music/masterpieces and that simply isn't possible. So I suggest you review your own scores and actually learn how to rate your music instead of having a 9.6+ average rating.

Good point. In fact, I don't rate to review. If you look into my profile you can see I always rate albums 9 or 10, not because everything I listen to is brilliant. They're definitely not.

I'm not a critic, I give an album I like the highest score possible with the hope to improve its ranking, even if the album is not a masterpiece. I don't listen to rubbish bands that create intolerable music; I only listen to those with certain levels of reputation. Their songs/albums are carefully engineered and professionally produced, and I think it's more enjoyable than those created by underground bands with the so-called "brilliance" lying beneath low-quality recording and cheap, amateur cover artwork. It's merely a personal choice, you may call me superficial if you please.

Good point. In fact, I don't rate to review. If you look into my profile you can see I always rate albums 9 or 10, not because everything I listen to is brilliant. They're definitely not.

I'm not a critic, I give an album I like the highest score possible with the hope to improve its ranking, even if the album is not a masterpiece. I don't listen to rubbish bands that create intolerable music; I only listen to those with certain levels of reputation. Their songs/albums are carefully engineered and professionally produced, and I think it's more enjoyable than those created by underground bands with the so-called "brilliance" lying beneath low-quality recording and cheap, amateur cover artwork. It's merely a personal choice, you may call me superficial if you please.

First of all, it's your choice for doing so. However, yesterday there was someone in the shoutbox mentioning all her votes got deleted due to handing out only 9's and 10's to her favourite albums. She also cannot vote for albums and in polls for 180 days. Look it up, it's still in the shoutbox.

If you want to lie to yourself and others about how you feel about the albums you're rating, fine by me, but don't be surprised if people don't trust your judgement when it comes to music. In other words, I cannot take an opinion of someone who rates everything 9's and 10's seriously at all. This is not necessarily about you, but just in general. Simply handing out high votes for the sake of improving the rating is a bit weird, since it means you care more about the MS rating than about your own rating. In that case, what's the point of voting? Hell, I even think I'm too generous with handing out 8's and 9's to stuff, but if you'd put my votes in a graph then you'd see a bell curve which is an honest vote distribution.

With AshesTristania made me believe that they can find their new sound after the departure of Morten Veland, but since that time their music seems more and more boring to my ears with each new album. And, in my opinion, departure of Vibeke Stene has killed off the band. Not that Mariangela Demiurtas sings bad, not at all. It's just that she doesn't have such a unique warm vocal timbre I loved Vibeke for. Even the return of Pete Johansen with his ever brilliant violin play doesn't save this record, but it did make me raise the rating by one point after all.

Rubicon continues to entice me after nearly 5 years. A new era was introduced for a band with several amazing "eras" already; a band who continuously reinvents themselves with huge success.

The fact that so many Metal Stormers don't love their newer works DOES make sense. If their last 4 albums were released under a different band name, or at least the last 2 albums, they would have been very well received here. It's hard for many fans to watch bands evolve so much and to travel so far from their roots, their roots to which we already have an emotional connection. It makes people feel left behind, sadly.

It's easy to remember just the nostalgia and say that we miss Vibeke but Illumination was very, very poorly received here, as was Ashes. Vibeke sang beautifully on both of those. Even the incredible World Of Glass was answered with cries of "we miss Morton" and "RIP Tristania." They persevere, they have with every album since the very beginning. "Tristania" is an idea always being reborn. Even Beyond The Veil was an evolution away from Widow's Weeds.

Rubicon is an adventure that I love taking, listen after listen. I consider each Tristania album to be a wonderful journey and a unique moment, but Rubicon certainly does hold a special place for bringing the aching beauty of music to such a soaring height.